In 2003, The American Journal of Surgery published a series of special articles to honor the birth centennial of the late Robert Milton Zollinger, MD, FACS (1903–1992), chair of surgery at The Ohio State University in Columbus, and Past-President of the ACS.
One of the papers was a revelatory piece by the honoree’s son, Robert M. Zollinger Jr., MD, FACS, detailing the genesis of the Cutler-Zollinger Atlas of Surgical Operations, first published in 1939.
Now in its 11th edition, this gold-standard reference for learning how to perform the most common surgical procedures has been renamed Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations. Replete with many more chapters, illustrations, and procedures (including laparoscopic and robotic), it also has been published in several languages.
Besides the senior Dr. Zollinger, the original authors of the Atlas of Surgical Operations included Elliott Carr Cutler, MD, FACS (1888–1947), and illustrator Mildred Codding (1902–1991). All were seemingly connected by their relationships to neurosurgeon Harvey Williams Cushing, MD, FACS (1869–1939). Dr. Cutler trained under Dr. Cushing at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA) and served with him overseas during World War I.
Dr. Zollinger, a graduate of Ohio State and its medical school, was one of Dr. Cushing’s last interns in Boston. He became a resident under Dr. Cutler at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland before both returned to the Brigham in 1932 when Dr. Cutler succeeded Dr. Cushing as chief of surgery and Moseley Professor at Harvard in Boston, MA.
Codding attended Wellesley College, MA (1924), and after receiving a masters degree from Columbia University in New York, NY, she became a medical illustrator, studying under the legendary Max Brödel at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. There, she became acquainted with Dr. Cushing, Brödel’s longtime friend and colleague. Dr. Cushing also was an excellent artist in his own right, and despite the growing popularity of photography in clinical use, he felt that good medical illustrations still could be a superior teaching medium.
The target audience of that first atlas was not only practicing surgeons and trainees, but also general practitioners who were still performing operations, despite the establishment of the American Board of Surgery certification in 1937. The atlas was inspired by the popular animal laboratory courses that had been organized by Drs. Cutler and Zollinger.
Dr. Zollinger Jr. refers to the clarity of Codding’s illustrations and the purposeful use of a distinctly large format with text facing the drawings. The size made the book easy to read and find among a pile of other books. Those original illustrations would be used in subsequent editions.
Many of us may recall seeing a worn copy of a “Zollinger” near the operating rooms or in the doctors’ lounge, a reassurance for that last-minute peek before a case—in contrast with the present-day instantaneous access to digital content.
